“This Is Not Normal”: The Global Academy’s Resistance to Authoritarianism and Academic Capitalism

Summary: In the wake of rising authoritarianism and neoliberal retrenchment, academic institutions across the globe are increasingly pressured to suppress dissent, sanitize curricula, and deprioritize justice-based scholarship. Drawing from responses to political repression in Brazil and Argentina, this paper connects present-day U.S. conditions to transnational histories of academic resistance. Findings: We locate today’s institutional silencing within the broader logics of academic capitalism and authoritarian governance, emphasizing how compliance, rather than critical engagement, is becoming the new normal. Applications: Drawing on radical traditions of academic and professional resistance from the Americas, we present lessons learned and action steps that can guide justice-oriented disciplines within institutions of higher education in their pursuit of responding to and resisting against rising authoritarianism and safeguarding human rights.